03 early 04 handel serseHandel – Serse
Stéphany; Joshua; Daniels; Summers; Harvey; Sherratt; Wolf; Early Opera Company; Christian Curnyn
Chaconne CHAN 0797(3)

Serse (aka Xerxes Great King of Persia) was first performed in 1738, at a time when Handel still believed he could win London audiences over to the Italian dramma per musica. For this he drew on Venetian poet Nicolò Minato’s libretto and Pier Francesco Cavalli’s music, originally performed back in 1655.

Xerxes attempted to invade Greece, but was defeated, not least when attempting to cross the Hellespont. After his first bridge was washed away, he beheaded the engineers and gave the Hellespont waters 300 lashes for good measure. Little wonder Minato and Handel were so focused on the volatility of Xerxes.

From the start one notices the carefree nature of this new performance; during Handel’s lifetime Serse was only performed five times and contemporaries commented on the lacklustre quality of the original singers.

This time, however, the interpretations are outstanding. Anna Stéphany, in the title role, is enchanting as a ruler subject to all manner of events, notably the unexpected over which he has no control, and the almost whimsical, which reflect his own character. This is not, on the face of it, a king setting out to conquer the known world.

Throughout Serse all the performers maintain this lighthearted quality. For example, Elviro, a servant of Xerxes’ brother Arsamene, is depicted as a panicky and nervous individual. Bass-baritone Andreas Wolf takes full advantage of this in his singing. There is definitely a liveliness to this version of Serse – over all 94 (!) of its tracks.

 

03 early 05 handel belshazzarHandel – Belshazzar
Clayton; Joshua; Hulcup; Davies; Lemalu; Les Arts Florissants; William Christie
Les Arts Florissants Editions 001

When Handel came to London in 1710, he was primarily a composer of Italian operas. His first oratorio, Esther, dates from 1732 but it was from the late 1730s on, when Italian opera was losing its popularity in London, that English oratorio became central to his work. Belshazzar was composed in 1744. The libretto is largely based on the Book of Daniel and its central event is the writing on the wall which Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, does not understand and which only Daniel, the Jewish captive, can interpret.

In 1745 major changes had to be made because the contralto, Susannah Cibber, who was to sing Daniel, was not available. On these CDs William Christie gives us essentially the work as it stood before that emergency surgery, but he also includes some material that was cut before the first performance (cut no doubt because Handel was worried about the work’s length) as well as some numbers that Handel added or changed for the 1751 revival. The performance is magnificent: it is superbly paced and the soloists, the orchestra and the chorus are all very fine. I was especially taken with the soprano Rosemary Joshua as Nitocris, Belshazzar’s mother, and the countertenor Iestyn Davies as Daniel.

Over the years Christie and Les Arts Florissants have given us many fine recordings, but this is the first set of CDs issued by the orchestra itself. A great beginning!

Concert notes: While there are dozens of performances of Messiah in Toronto each year, chances to hear Handel’s other oratorios are infrequent. But we are in luck this year: Tafelmusik is presenting Saul (February 21 to 23) and the Canadian Opera Company is giving us a staged version of Hercules, directed by Peter Sellars (from March 5).

04 classical 01 mozart widmannMozart – Clarinet Quintet; String Quartet K421
Jörg Widmann; Arcanto Quartet
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902168

Ever since the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983, I’ve realized that Mozart’s Quintet in A Major for clarinet and string quartet is more than a wonderful part of the repertoire for my instrument: it is a gift left for humanity. A luminous nearly perfect piece, K581 seems intended to assuage grief, to remind us that mortality is not so bad after all. Every new recording of it, indeed every performance, is a way of sharing the divine. In a recent release, Jörg Widmann and the Arcanto Quartet do justice to the music in a way that refreshes the ear with a bracing clarity in the strings and absolutely stunning playing in the clarinet. Widmann chooses to perform on the altered basset clarinet, allowing for some extra-low notes in some passages, but it makes little impact on the overall effect. More telling is the blistering tempo of the 16th-note variation in the fourth movement. Has this man no limits?

The strings adhere to a classical style: the near-absence of vibrato, the almost nasal colour of gut strings. Arcanto is a wonderful ensemble, playing as one, snapping back and forth between lead and accompaniment (the first trio in the third movement is Mozart’s little thank-you gift to the string players, a micro quartet while the tacet clarinettist swabs his horn). Do the five get carried away in the variations? Is the expression perhaps more coarse than necessary at times? Perhaps. But the violist, thank goodness, is not given to self-indulgence, and the piece ends in a flashy coda that few could manage with such a combination of wicked speed and beautiful style.

Arcanto performs K421 on their own in the companion piece. Worth hearing as well, and a welcome deviation from the usual inclusion of a lesser work for the same combination.

Concert note: Jörg Widmann is featured as both clarinetist and composer in New Music Concerts’ “A Portrait of Jörg Widmann” on April 18 at Betty Oliphant Theatre. 

Gold Medalist
Vadym Kholodenko
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907605

Silver Medalist
Beatrice Rana
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907606

Crystal Award
Sean Chen
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907607

Three winners emerged from the 14th Van Cliburn Competition in May/June 2013 to prove once again how unique and individuated such pianistic brilliance can be. A Ukrainian, Vadym Kholodenko, age 26, won the gold. Silver went to 20-year-old Italian Beatrice Rana and an American of 24, Sean Chen, received the crystal award. In addition, the winners also received three years of commission-free career management. These performances were recorded live in Fort Worth with audiences barely able to withhold their applause until the final chords faded completely. Considered together, these three young artists offer intriguingly different approaches to their music and its instrument.

04 classical 02a van cliburn kholodenkoGold medalist Kholodenko chose an endurance program of Stravinsky (Petrouchka) and Liszt. The Transcendental Etudes, best known for the broad range of their technical demands, never seem to tax Kholodenko. He rises easily above them to allow himself generous interpretive ground. Here he plays wistfully with the melodies of Feux Follets and Harmonies du Soir, drawing out Liszt’s inner themes woven across left and right hand parts. His muscular approach to Mazeppa and Wilde Jagd leave no doubt about his power over the instrument as he makes it roar louder than either of his winning competitors. Similarly, his approach to Petrouchka demonstrates a remarkable clipped staccato in the very opening phrases that adds razor sharpness to the phrasing unlike what most other pianists are able to achieve. This power is beautifully contrasted with his playing of the second movement where a gentle legato and light touch confirm exactly why his medal was the gold.

04 classical 02b van cliburn ranaRana, the silver medalist, brings an elegant, dance-like style to her Schumann, Ravel and Bartók. Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes are very dense at times requiring the utmost in accuracy and articulation. Rana is wonderfully adept at drawing out melodies from within this quasi-orchestral score. The ninth etude, although only a few seconds in duration, is an excellent example of how she does this while sustaining a relentless driving pulse around the theme. Her performance of Ravel’s Gaspard meets every expectation for superbly fluid playing in the opening “Ondine.” “Le Gibet” and “Scarbo” each show us how well Rana can shift to a portrayal of darkness and mystery.

Perhaps most convincing is her primal and somewhat savage approach to Bartók’s Out of Doors. Despite the gentler requirements of the second and fourth movements, the opening almost puts the piano at risk as she astonishes the audience with her raw power. A performer with a demonstrably impressive interpretive ability, one understands why she also won the Audience Award.

04 classical 02c van cliburn chenFinally, Chen, winner of the crystal award performs a program of Brahms, Beethoven and Bartók. This young American pianist takes his Bartók just as seriously as his formidable Italian competitor but regards the composer’s rhythmic and harmonic angularity with more romance and less anger. A very different but very creditable approach. Chen is a thinker, a pianist who clearly appreciates clean structure. This is what informs all his playing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the closing epic fugal movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier. Adjectives simply fail to describe Chen’s grasp of how Beethoven built this complex edifice. He plays it brilliantly. The cheering audience reaction says it all.

 

04 classical 03 busoni pianoBusoni – Late Piano Music
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CDA67951/3

Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin has recorded some 50 albums on the Hyperion label of generally unfamiliar and often extremely virtuosic repertoire to great critical acclaim. His recent release of three CDs devoted to the late piano music of Ferruccio Busoni represents another milestone in an outstanding career.

The repertoire covers the last 15 years of Busoni’s life and includes a number of pieces which self-reference his lesser-known orchestral works. CD 1 opens with the pivotal collection of seven Elegies composed in 1907. According to the composer, “My entire personal vision I put down at last and for the first time in the Elegies.” These works reveal a tonal expansion of his earlier, more facile and traditional approach. The title is misleading, as these works are far from funereal. As might be expected from the only child of an Italian father and German mother, both of them professional musicians, Busoni’s style is cosmopolitan in the extreme, freely mixing influences ranging from an exuberant Italianate Tarantella (later incorporated into his massive Piano Concerto, recorded by Hamelin in 1999 in a staggering performance) to variations on the well-known English folk song Greensleeves (strangely, Busoni had been led to believe this melody was of Chinese origin and had used it as such in his opera based on Gozzi’s play Turandot).

CD 2 is largely devoted to Busoni’s six Sonatinas, again of exceptional emotional range, from the inward-looking Sonatina seconda (containing thematic references to his opera Doktor Faust) to the sixth, overtly Lisztian, Kammer-Fantasie über Carmen that concludes the cycle. One even finds an intriguing example of “World Music.” Busoni had toured the United States repeatedly in the early 20th century and while resident there took a keen interest in the Native American music which had been brought to his attention by Natalie Curtis, a former piano student of his who gifted him a copy of her massive 1907 volume of pioneering ethnomusicological transcriptions, The Indians’ Book. Busoni responded with a handful of Indian-inspired works including his Indian Diary in which short motifs from her collection appear as thematic springboards for his kaleidoscopic inventions.

Many of the pieces included on CD 3 have a pedagogical purpose. Opening with a fabulously fleeting performance of the demanding Toccata of 1920, the bulk of the disc is devoted to a generous sampling from his late Klavierübung volumes which explore technical issues involving trills, staccato passages and polyphony as well as an intriguing set of variations on Chopin’s familiar Prelude in C Minor. These three discs contain a number of pieces not previously recorded and also include a sampling of the numerous Bach arrangements Busoni is best known for. The programming is exemplary, the sound is alluring (from a Steinway piano recorded in London’s Henry Wood Hall) and the program notes are excellent. Bravo Hamelin!

 

04 classical 04a mahler 4 chailly04 classical 04b mahler 6 chailly - from amazonMahler – Symphony No.4 in G Major
Christina Landshamer; Gewandhaus Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly
Accentus Music Blu-Ray disc, ACC10257

Mahler – Symphony No.6 in A Minor
Gewandhaus Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly
Accentus Music Blu-Ray disc, ACC10268

The new Mahler cycle by Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra continues. Chailly already has a complete cycle on CD (which includes Cooke’s realization of the 10th with the Berlin RSO), with the Concertgebouw recorded between 1994 and 2003 when he was their music director, succeeding Bernard Haitink who also had set down a cycle. Both these Concertgebouw performances are cast in the traditional mould.

Most conductors and orchestras that include Mahler in their repertoire are on firm ground delivering performances that do not stray beyond the, by now, traditional way the scores unfold. Tradition, to paraphrase Toscanini, is what you heard in the last bad performance… and so on back down the line.

This new Fourth Symphony disc contains, in addition to the revelatory, searching performance, two bonus features. Mahler is heard playing from the fourth movement on the 1905 Welte-Mignon piano rolls, and Chailly expounds on his new interpretation of the symphony with illustrations from the rehearsals and performance. Chailly: “It is important to take the time to study music you’ve performed many times before. I hadn’t conducted Mahler’s Fourth for 11 years and it felt like unfinished business. I’ve tried to rethink my interpretation from start to finish and give this great symphony a far stronger sense of structure. I’ve started again from scratch. Mahler takes everything to extremes: he takes his climaxes to the limit, and the movement lengths, so you have to pay close attention to the enormous extremes in dynamics…”

The Sixth is immediately arresting.  Chailly reverses the order of the middle movements, returning the “Andante” to second place followed by the “Scherzo,” now an hysterical danse macabre, distanced from the Allegro energico of the first movement. The total performance is a new experience, to say the very least. On the 15-minute bonus track, Chailly and Reinhold Kubik of the International Gustav Mahler Society discuss many aspects of the symphony including, of course, how many hammer blows. Chailly talks about and illustrates, as before, his break away from destructive traditions.

As do the Second (Accentus ACC10238) and Eighth (ACC10222) released in 2012, these nonpareil performances realize Mahler’s genius as an orchestrator and music visionary. As before, no one on the stage is on automatic pilot…they are all in the moment. My attention was rapt through gossamer pianissimos to translucent, shattering tuttis. I’m sold.

Bruce Surtees

 

robbins 01 prokofiev ehnesThe latest offering from James Ehnes is an outstanding 2-CD set of the Complete Works for Violin by Sergei Prokofiev (Chandos CHAN 10787(2)). Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic in the Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major and the Violin Concerto No.2 in G Minor on disc one, and Andrew Armstrong is the accompanist for the violin and piano works on disc two. Ehnes gives thoughtful and sensitive performances of the two concertos, and is given perfect support by Noseda, a conductor who has few equals when it comes to drawing nuanced, sensitive playing from a large orchestra.

Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti joins Ehnes in the Sonata for Two Violins, Op.56, and Ehnes gives a spirited performance of the lovely Sonata for Violin Solo, Op.115. The difficult and engrossing Sonata No.1 in F Minor, Op.80, is the major work on disc 2, and Ehnes and Armstrong are outstanding. Although completed in 1946, three years after the sonata we know as No.2, Prokofiev had started work on it in 1938.

The Five Melodies Op.35bis were transcribed by Prokofiev in 1925 from his original 1920 version for voice and piano. The final work on disc two is the Sonata No.2 in D Major, Op.94bis, the composer’s transcription of his Flute Sonata from 1943.

Balance and sound quality throughout are up to the quality you would expect from a thoroughly satisfying CD set.

robbins 02 jennifer kohMy eyes light up whenever I see a new Jennifer Koh CD from the Cedille label, and the latest release from this most intelligent of performers, signs, games + messages (CDR 90000 143) certainly doesn’t disappoint. Koh is joined by pianist Shai Wosner in a recital that features works by Leoš Janáček, Béla Bartók and the 87-year-old Hungarian composer György Kurtág. Koh and Wosner, in a joint statement in the excellent booklet notes, cite their desire to explore the tension between the visionary modernism of the works and the pull of the folk and cultural memory that is so essential to the personal language of these composers, as the spark for this recital.

There really does seem to be a logical progression through the program, from Janáček’s Violin Sonata, through a selection of short aphorisms by Kurtág, to Bartók’s First Violin Sonata. There are four solo piano pieces from the Játékok series and four solo violin pieces from Signs, Games and Messages in the Kurtág works in addition to three duo works, and the piano pieces in particular have echoes of Janáček’s piano series On An Overgrown Path. The Bartók sonata seems to follow naturally from the final Kurtág work, the In Nomine – all’ongherese for solo violin.

Needless to say, the performing and recording standard throughout is of the highest quality. Once again, Koh provides us with a fascinating journey through a carefully chosen and perfectly balanced program.

robbins 03 romantic duosThe husband and wife team of violinist Benjamin Schmid and pianist Ariane Haering are in superb form on the CD Romantic Duos, featuring works by Franz Liszt, Frank Bridge and Edvard Grieg (TwoPianists Records TP1039299). Schmid’s tone throughout is rich, warm and full-blooded; Haering is a true partner with a beautiful piano tone, and the balance and sound quality are perfect.

Although usually attributed solely to Liszt, his Grand Duo Concertant was actually a collaborative effort between Liszt and the violinist Charles-Philippe Lafont, whose Romance, Le Marin is the basis for a set of short variations. It’s a lovely work. Liszt’s brief Consolation No.3 was originally one of six solo piano works, and is presented here in a transcription for violin and piano by Nathan Milstein.

The English composer Frank Bridge only published one acknowledged violin sonata, in 1922, but there is an incomplete sonata that pre-dates the Great War, comprising an opening movement and an unfinished second movement. It is this work that is recorded here, with the second movement completed by the Bridge authority Paul Hindmarsh. It’s a beautifully rhapsodic work that draws terrific playing from the performers. Two short pieces by Bridge are also included: Romanze, from 1904 (the same year as the unfinished sonata); and Heart’s Ease, written in the early 1920s. A passionate performance of Grieg’s Violin Sonata No.3 in C Minor, Op.45, completes an outstanding disc.

robbins 04 duo renard

Another husband and wife team, Mark and Ute Miller, perform as the Duo Renard on a CD of Duos for Violin and Viola in works by Mozart and Brydern (Fleur de Son Classics FDS 58011).

It’s clear from the outset that this will be a “sit back and enjoy” CD:  the intonation is spot on; the ensemble playing, phrasing and articulation are all excellent; the tone, balance and recorded sound are beautiful.

The two Mozart works – the Duos in G Major, K423 and B-Flat Major, K424 – were written to complete a set of six duos that Salzburg’s Archbishop Colloredo had commissioned from the ailing Michael Haydn, Mozart’s friend and the brother of Joseph Haydn. Mozart was a superb viola player as well as a first-class violinist, and his understanding of both instruments is clear for all to hear.

The two works by the German-born and U.S.-based Benedikt Brydern (b.1966) are an interesting contrast. The seven-movement suite Bebop for Beagles was commissioned by Duo Renard, and is a tribute to the couple’s two pet dogs. From My Notebook Vol.2 is a collection of four short pieces from 2000, following an earlier series with the same title for solo violin. Movement titles like “Cookies in Space” and “Flea Control: Mission Impossible” give you a good impression of what to expect here: both works are great fun – and very, very good.

Brahms KhachatryanThe brother and sister violin and piano duo of Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan are back with a beautiful CD of the three Brahms Sonatas (naïve V 5314). These glorious works are the perfect length for a CD and always a great listen; indeed, it would take a pretty bad performance to spoil them.

The Khachatryans make you sit up and take notice right from the start, but for all the right reasons. There is a quiet, introspective start to the G major sonata, and some beautifully expansive phrasing, especially in the piano. The violin vibrato tends to be fairly fast and narrow and is rarely missing, but the sweet tone and thoughtful phrasing mean that there is never any sense of harshness or tightness. The CD was recorded at London’s Wigmore Hall, and the balance and sound quality are ideal.

robbins 05 schumann tetzlaffViolinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt are in great form on their CD of the Schumann Violin Sonatas (Ondine ODE 105-2). All three sonatas were written towards the end of Schumann’s life, the Sonata No.1 in A Minor and the Sonata No.2 in D Minor within a few months of each other in late 1851. The Sonata No.3 in A Minor has an odd history. Immediately after contributing two movements to the “F.A.E” Sonata on which he, Brahms and Albert Dietrich collaborated in October 1853 as a birthday gift for Joseph Joachim, Schumann added a further two movements to complete the new work; Clara Schumann and Brahms apparently prevented its being included in the complete edition of Schumann’s works though, and it wasn’t published until 1956.

Tetzlaff and Vogt apparently immersed themselves in Schumann’s late works in preparation for this recording, and it shows; their playing is warm and fluent, and they clearly have a great affinity for the material on a terrific CD. Their performance of the third sonata in particular makes you wonder why it was suppressed for so long.

Two ongoing string quartet series came to an end with recent releases; by coincidence, in-depth reviews of earlier volumes in both series were included in the same Strings Attached column in March 2012:

robbins 06 pacifica shostakovich ivVolume IV of The Soviet Experience, the outstanding Cedille series of String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries, features quartets numbers 13 to15 by Shostakovich in stunning performances by the Pacifica Quartet (CDR 90000 145). What has added immeasurably to this series, though, is the addition of contemporary Russian string quartets to each volume. This time it’s the String Quartet No.3 by Alfred Schnittke that completes the 2-CD set. Everything about this wonderful series has been of the highest order: the performances; the recording quality; the cover artwork; the booklet notes; the choice of contemporary works. The word “definitive” keeps cropping up in the various reviews of previous sets in this series, and even in the face of some extremely strong competition it’s very difficult to imagine a more compelling or satisfying collection of these wonderful works. Add the fact that all four volumes are currently on sale on the Cedille website for around US$13 each, and the words “must buy” come to mind!

robbins 07 meyer quartetsThe Naxos release of the String Quartets Nos.1, 2, 3 and 4 by Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer is also a fourth and final volume, this time in the series of the complete quartets performed by the Wieniawski String Quartet (8.573165). These early works run from the Op.8 of 1963 to the Op.33 of 1974, and show a developing but confident composer willing to experiment with sounds and forms. The members of this Polish ensemble are completely at home with these important works by their compatriot, and the four volumes constitute an impressive set.

Two other CDs continue ongoing series:

robbins 08 saint-saens sonata 2French violinist Fanny Clamagirand is joined by her regular duo partner, pianist Vanya Cohen in the second volume of Saint-Saëns Music for Violin and Piano (Naxos 8.572751). The main works here are the Suite in D Minor, Op.16 and the Violin Sonata No.2 in E-Flat Major, Op.102; there is also a very early – and very brief – unfinished sonata, although “hardly started” might be a better description. A short Méditation and two works originally for cello – the Romance in C Major, Op.48, and The Swan – round out the CD.

Saint-Saëns’ music may not have impacted the course of musical history, but it’s of a very high quality. Clamagirand and Cohen have exactly the right mix of technical bravura and musical insight to make these works sound terrific. Volume 1, featuring the Violin Sonata No.1, is available on Naxos 8.572750.

robbins 09 maxwell davies concertosThe Naxos series of the 10 Strathclyde Concertos by Peter Maxwell-Davies continues with the Concerto No.5 for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra, coupled with the Concerto No.6 for Flute and Orchestra (8.572354). Both works were written in 1991, and were recorded two years later for the Collins Classics label by the artists to whom the works were dedicated and who gave the premieres: violinist James Clark; violist Catherine Marwood; flutist David Nicholson; and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by the composer. This Naxos CD is a reissue of those recordings. The performances of these high-quality works are clearly definitive, although there is little to stir the blood in either concerto.


robbins 10 schoenberg sherrySchoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht
is available in a new version, this time coupled with the String Quartet No.1 in performances by the Fred Sherry String Quartet and Sextet (Naxos 8.557534). Leila Josefowicz is the first violin here, and the disc is part of an ongoing series of Schoenberg recordings under the direction of the legendary Robert Craft. Despite this noteworthy pedigree, however, I don’t think this performance of Verklärte Nacht quite matches the version by Janine Jansen and friends reviewed in this column in June 2013.

The String Quartet No.1 is worth the price of the CD on its own, though. It’s a large, deeply chromatic work from 1904/05, a pivotal point in the composer’s career, and it’s made even more interesting by the knowledge of where it would lead in just a few years. Four short canons from the series of Thirty Canons that Schoenberg wrote between 1905 and 1949 close out the disc.

robbins 11b schubert haasrobbins 11a schubert diotimaSeveral other works also seem to be cropping up quite regularly these days. There are two new recordings of the Schubert String Quintet in C Major, for instance, although it’s difficult to imagine having too many versions of this outstanding work. Cellist Anne Gastinel joins the Quatuor Diotima in a beautiful performance on naïve (V 5331), while Danjulo Ishizaka joins the Pavel Haas Quartet on a 2-CD Supraphon set that also features Schubert’s String Quartet No.14 in D Minor, Death and the Maiden (SU4110-2). A wide range of dynamics in the latter release makes for some terrific moments in passionate but sensitive performances of both works.

 

 

 

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